Mark Antony Born: Rome's Ambitious General

He was Caesar's general, Cleopatra's lover, and Octavian's enemy, in roughly that order. Mark Antony was born in Rome around 83 BC to a family with old patrician connections but diminished political standing. His father died when he was young. His stepfather was executed by Cicero's allies during the Catiline conspiracy. Antony grew up with grudges and military talent in equal measure. He joined Caesar's army in Gaul and proved himself an effective and aggressive commander. He commanded Caesar's left wing at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, the decisive engagement of the civil war against Pompey. He served as Caesar's Master of the Horse, effectively his deputy, and was consul of Rome when Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC. His eulogy in the Forum, which Shakespeare dramatized but did not invent, turned public opinion against the assassins. After Caesar's death, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate and divided Rome's territories among themselves. Antony took the eastern provinces. In Tarsus in 41 BC, he summoned Cleopatra VII of Egypt to explain her loyalties, and the meeting became one of the most consequential love affairs in Western history. Cleopatra arrived on a gilded barge. Antony, by most accounts, never fully recovered. He married Cleopatra, had three children with her, and distributed Roman territories to their offspring in the Donations of Alexandria, a ceremony that Octavian used as propaganda evidence that Antony had gone native. The Senate declared war on Cleopatra, which was effectively war on Antony. At the naval battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC, Octavian's fleet under Agrippa defeated Antony and Cleopatra decisively. They fled to Alexandria. Antony, believing Cleopatra was dead, fell on his sword. He was wrong about her death, but the wound was fatal. He died in her arms, reportedly. She followed him within days.